Eric's Rain
by Sgt. Sock
Summary: A new CO joins the Black Hole...
1. Eric's Rain, Part 1

Eric's rain, Part 1...

The rain pounded on Eric's head as he walked down that alley. Ever since the accident three years ago his life had been miserable. All of his former friends abandoned him, he lost his job, his girlfriend left him, and he began nearing a suicidal point in his life. He could not take the heartache anymore. No one wanted to hear his theories about robotics and Ai However, as he walked down that alley, a man approached him. The man, tall and slender, walked right up to him.

"Are you Eric Myron?" the stranger asked. Eric was astounded. Why would anyone want to talk to him? He saw something in this man however. Something different. "Yes, who wants to know?" He replied. "My master has heard of you. He admires your theories. I am Hawk." Eric took a step back. This mans master actually took him seriously.

Eric could hardly believe it. "Would you come with me Eric?" Hawk asked. Eric readily agreed. They left the alley and got in a black sedan. The driver started the car and began driving. On the way Eric talked with Hawk more about Hawk's master.

"His name is Sturm. We are a military faction and have been trying to develop robotic soldiers. Until now we have had no success, but with you're help, I believe we may yet be able to accomplish this." Hawk explained. Eric was very excited. Unfortunately Eric had never heard of Sturm, and had no knowledge of the black hole. Because of this, Eric was ready to work for anyone who would hire him, including Sturm.

As soon as they reached the base Eric had ideas for these robotic soldiers. When they entered the building, Eric asked to see Sturm. "I'm sorry Eric but Sturm is busy right now. He will however, be able to see you in about an hour. Right now our head researcher Lash will show you our labs."  
Lash arrived promptly and walked up to Eric.

"Look buddy, I know we're supposed to work together, but the only reason I'm here is to figure out this bug in our Robo-Troops, so don't get any funny ideas!" Lash exclaimed.

"Alright, alright, whatever lady." Eric replied. Lash showed him to the lab where the robo-troops were being built. There were parts strewn about and a half finished robotic skeleton in the middle of the round room. Eric, already feeling more confident, decided to retaliate to Lash's earlier hostility.

"Hey, Lash, why don't you go hide in a corner somewhere and let me handle this." He said jokingly. You could see a look in Lash's eyes, an "I'll get you for that" look.

Lash and Eric soon became friends, having had a chance to get to know each other. They worked for hours with the programming and construction of the prototype Robo-Soldier. After almost 13 straight hours of working together, they felt that they had completed their prototype.

"It's about fugging time!!!" Eric said as he slumped against a desk. "I say we call him RS-01!"

"Not real original, but it fits." Lash said. "I have a question Eric, you're always wearing an overcoat, so I've never seen you're legs, and I was wondering why you never sit down, except when you have to?" Lash asked. Eric removed his overcoat to reveal the robotics stand he moved around on. It was a platform that connected to his torso, and had treads at the bottom, which oscillated to give the effect of walking. "Wow." Lash said.

"I was in a horrible car accident two years ago and my legs were crushed. They had to be amputated, and then replaced by this robotic device." Eric explained. "By the way, there is one more part we need before we can get this thing to work, and it is easily installed with no programming required, but it is very heavy." He said.

"No problem, I'll just get flak to carry it!" Lash said. "Flaaakkkkk!!! FLAKALAKALAKALAKALAAAKKKK!!!!" Lash yelled.

"Lash? You bellowed?" Flak said as he walked in the door minutes later.

"I need you to carry something for us." Lash told him.

An hour later, with everything installed and RS-01 working almost perfectly, a knock came at the door. Hawk entered and walked up to Eric.

"Eric, Sturm would like to speak with you." Hawk said. He then left the room with Eric behind. When they reached Sturm's office Eric entered and Hawk left. Eric walked in and sat down at a chair. Eric was startled by sturm's appearance.

"Eric, do you have any tactical experience?" Sturm asked.

"Well not really but I am good at strategic games." Eric replied, unsure of what his answer should be.

"I believe that you would make a fine addition to our commanding ranks. After watching you work with Lash on RS-01, I would very much like to see you in our forces. Will you join us?" Sturm asked.

"Well, ummm... YES! This is the chance of a lifetime and I am not going to let it slip through my fingers." Eric Exclaimed. Sturm smiled; at least as much as curving his smokestack/mouth/hole can be called a smile.

"Good Then." Sturm said as he handed Eric a small badge. "You are now an official Black Hole CO!"

THE END. For now anyways...


	2. Eric's Rain, Part 2

**Eric's Rain, Part 2…**

**After happily agreeing to Sturm's request, Eric speaks with Hawke about the terms of his service as a CO.**

**"You will be trained under Lash's supervision, and then deployed in the field." Hawke said. Eric could hardly wait to get to the field-training base where Hawke had said he would be stationed. He was almost immediately transferred. When he got there he found Lash. She told him about the training missions he would go through. **

**Several weeks later, Eric finally finished the training missions and was sent on his first official deployment. He was given command of three infantry units, two mech units, and a tank. His objective was to eliminate an Orange Star pipeline, which was lightly guarded by two mech units. His troops were deployed and moved towards the targeted section of the pipe. His tank was caught behind the mountains and would have to take the long way around. His infantry moved over the mountains with ease and his mech units followed behind slowly. The two Orange Star units saw the incoming enemies and prepared for battle. As the other two mechs came over the mountains the infantry swooped in. One led the first enemy away while the other enemy was attacked by the other two infantry. They finished off the enemy mech and began to approach the other. The other enemy began to retreat down the road and was ambushed by the tank, which promptly eradicated him. They then destroyed the pipe with the tank and pulled out. When Eric arrived back at the base Lash congratulated him. **

**"That was good, but _I _would have done better." She said as he walked up. Eric was taller that most people his age, but that was mostly because of his cybernetic legs. He had dark hair and always wore a cloak, to cover his legs up. He also had a scar, on his neck.**

**"Umm, thanks, I guess…" he responded. **

**It would be a long time before he had any real responsibilities. He had done a little research and knew that the pipeline he had destroyed would not be as important to defeating the Orange Star as they had told him. It was a supply line but it actually ran to a civilian area which he was assured would not be attacked. He also knew that was a lie. These people had no concern for the civilians this world, only for their own agendas. **

**Of course Eric knew he would turn on them when the time was right… He was gathering information, and when the time was right he would create his own army, and attack the Black Hole. He had been building the robotic soldiers with control frequencies. They would obey commands given on a certain frequency, or take orders from Sturm and Hawke, however, Sturm and Hawke's orders would be secondary to the user of the frequency's orders, which means that Eric could simply order them to not take orders from the Black Hole. With the Orange Star crippled and the others on the run, he would crush Black Hole and become ruler of this area of Wars World. He and Lash had been conspiring about this ever since he had come there. His plan was perfect, but no perfect plan was perfect…**

**Lash entered Sturm's office and walked straight up to his desk, which of course, was not occupied. Sturm was never one to sit behind a desk; the old smokestack was probably off laying waste to some innocent civilian's home. She walked behind the desk and opened the top left drawer. She took out some papers and began reading. She found the date that Sturm intended to have the robo-soldiers make their debut. Perfect. They would lay waste to the rest of the Orange Star Army and then would be taken over by Eric. The two would soon rule the world. After that she would betray him. She would become the ruler of everything. What a conniving bunch they were…**

**The End, of Part 2 anyway…**


	3. Eric's Rain, Part 3

Eric entered the lab to work on the last bit of the programming for the Robo Soldiers, which were almost complete.

The Robo Soldiers were about the same size as a normal human, with heavy armor and the infantry units had a built in machine gun in one arm.

The mechanized units had dual rocket launchers on their backs which, when not in use, were mounted like a backpack.

When the rocket launchers were raised they became shoulder-mounted by spreading apart and moving upward, onto the shoulders.

With an advanced processing unit that could think as fast as a human and the upgraded armor, they were dangerous to an extreme.

They were to be deployed at midnight and strike while the O.S. least expected it, where they least expected it.

"Lash, where do you keep the imaging programs on the drive? I need them so that I can begin writing the code to decipher them." Eric asked Lash.

"In the G drive, under RS/code/imaging." She replied.

"Alright." He replied.

He switched to that directory and began looking through the code Lash had written for the Robo Soldiers imaging systems.

"What the- oh crap, this won't work…" he said.

"Grrr… you'll have to make it work, because I'm not rewriting that code." Lash replied.

"Alright, alright, don't have a cow, I can adjust mine, sheesh." He said.

"It might be a little difficult though, considering you're code is written in a different language than mine." He muttered under his breath.

He would have to adapt her code to the language they were supposed to be using.

He began typing frantically as Sturm would be ticked off if he didn't have that finished.

After almost three hours he had it up and running and decided it was time for a test run.

He compiled the code one more time to be sure it was working and then uploaded it to the prototype head that they had prepared.

"Can you see me, RS-01?" Eric asked the head.

"Yes, I can. What is you're Identification Pattern?" the robot asked him.

The Robo Soldiers called names Identification Patterns, mostly because Lash wanted to see if she could confuse Sturm at the demo that night.

"You realize how silly you look talking to a robotic head?" she asked Eric.

"Shush, Lash. RS-01, my Identification Pattern is Eric." He told the robot.

"Well, I think that that is about it. We should be ready for the demo tonight. Just wait for what I have in store for Adder…" Lash said, breaking into an evil grin.

That night at the demo, Hawke, Adder, Flak, and Sturm file into the room where Lash and Eric would show them the robot.

"All right, where is this thing, I need to get out of here so I can admire myself some more." Adder said upon entering the room.

"That's it? How the crap is a head supposed to take over the Orange Star?" Flak asked.

"Shut up, both of you. Eric and Lash have worked very hard on this and it will be because of them that we rule this pathetic rock!" Hawke said.

They turned on the robot.

"Hello all. My Identification Pattern is RS-01. I am a prototype model for the Robo Soldier, model X-33A. I-" the robot began.

"Skip this and get to the guns." Flak said.

"We'll just leave Flak out of this then." Lash said as she slapped something on his back.

Flak fell to the ground as though he had been knocked unconscious.

"What the- how did- huh?" Adder said.

"My patented sleep patch! Slap it on someone and they'll fall right asleep." Lash said.

"Can we continue please?" Sturm said angrily.

"Oh, of course." Eric said.

'_Any second now…'_ Lash thought to herself.

The robot began scanning the room until it came to Adder.

"Adder, you slimy worm, get out of my sight or I will blast you into a million pieces!" the robot shouted.

Its body began moving because of wireless control from the head.

It pulled out the built in M Gun and pointed it right at Adder, who quickly scrambled away.

Eric, Lash, and Hawke cracked up laughing.

Even Sturm seemed amused, although the old smokestack could not really show it.

-------------------

After the demo was over everybody filed back out and Sturm congratulated Eric and Lash on their good work, even though he was slightly annoyed by the interruption.

Adder left, still fuming about the joke, and the crack about being a slimy worm, and Eric pulled Flak's limp body out of the room.

Eric's plans were coming into place. Everything would soon be ready…

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**Authors Note:** This one should be a lot better than the last few chapters as I have tried to implement the suggestions of my reviewers. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions.


End file.
